Porter College

Porter College

Motto	Ars Longa, Vita Brevis
Motto in English	Life is short, Art endures
Type	Residential college
Established	1969
Provost	Sean Keilen
Undergraduates	1,526
Address	University of California 1156 High Street Santa Cruz, CA 95064, Santa Cruz, California
Campus	Suburban/Sylvan
Colors	UCSC Blue      UCSC Gold
Website	www.porter.ucsc.edu/

Benjamin F. Porter College, a residential college at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is located on the lower west side of the university, south of Kresge College and north of Rachel Carson College. The college was founded in 1969 as College Five and formally dedicated on November 21, 1981. On that day the college was given the motto Ars Longa, Vita Brevis (Art endures, Life is short), and a series of college symbols, including a faculty mace and a college bell, were inaugurated.

The faculty of the college has had a distinguished leadership. The provosts of the college have included the writer James B. Hall, the painter and psychologist Pavel Machotka, filmmaker Eli Hollander and composer David Cope. In early years, the college community was famous for Friday-afternoon sherry hours and afternoon croquet matches on the quad, suggesting that "l'esprit de Santa Cruz" was not far from that of Oxbridge.

Situated on a meadow overlooking the Monterey Bay, Porter's original focus was on the visual and performing arts with a unique college major in aesthetic studies (including areas like criticism, creative writing, film, photography and crafts which were not covered by the more traditional boards of study). Porter has long been a center for fine and performing arts. The college complex includes three active galleries, the History of Art and Visual Culture department, and various spaces in the complex have frequently been used for musical, theatrical, and dance performances. It also features a koi pond and cherry tree garden.

Although designed as a traditional dormitory with a centralized dining hall, Porter soon gained a reputation befitting their artistic background by staging outrageously bohemian parties, including Halloween, "Step on My Face", "The End" (initially understood as "The End of the World," but also in response to the changing of the name of the college from College Five to Porter, later revised to "The End of the School Year," or "The Edge of the World," and now "Porterpalooza"), and, for a time, a parodistic Prom ("for all those who missed their High School Proms"). "Queer Fashion Show," formerly "Alternative Fashion Show" is a current annual program featuring student made fashion and a variety show. Porter is now also the home to several apartment buildings that are available to second year students and upper classmen. Currently, Freshmen and new Transfer students are not allowed to apply to live in the Porter Apartments.